Tent cities have sprung up outside Los Angeles

reply to post by hotpinkurinalmint


The honest problem with homeless people is what to do about it. I had a very difficult time getting out of being homeless myself because of work. You cannot force someone to hire you. I got lucky in that I found some somewhat steady work working for a day labor place. But even that has it's pitfalls, you start to get used to budgeting on a daily basis. It becomes an addiction, you go to this office every morning looking for the job for the day and if you are lucky enough to get onto a "ticket" that is long term, it starts to feel like a job. You go there every day and do whatever menial duty that they deem worthy of you and you smile and make the best of it.

The problem with what to do with homeless people is that they need jobs! That is the first step in combating homelessness. Get these people to work. If they are at work they are not hanging around bus stations or "flying signs" or at public libraries. A job will give a person a sense of worth and belonging to mainstream society.

As far as the ones that cannot for some reason work. Either due to a mental or physical handicap. I am not sure there is a solution. SSI (Social Security Insurance) Helps, but if they are self medicating, which happens all too often with drugs and mainly alcohol. They become dependent and also complacent in their situation. I knew a man that had immigrated from Canada that had lived at the Salvation Army homeless shelter for over 5 years. Because of his dependence on illegal drugs and (in this case) a inclination for hookers. This man became complacent, all his needs were met by the system. He was getting a check every month that he budgeted to pay for a place to sleep, he was given two free meals a day and he spent the other amount on drugs and prostitutes.

Meeting the needs without accountability on the part of people that are homeless leads to complacency. They accept and adopt this lifestyle.

Businesses obviously are reluctant to hire a homeless person because of the stigma that goes along with it, and of course the real and obvious risk that when these people do get paid they will blow their money on booze or drugs.

Social programs must be made available to those that are genuine candidates for such help. I am talking real programs. Education for example is something I never saw when I was homeless. Real job training in a carrier field that has opportunity for the right person could greatly change a persons life. Like they say give a man a fish he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime. Job training is what a lot of homeless people need in order to return to mainstream life with everyone else.

Hand outs in my opinion for the majority of homeless people are wasted efforts. They end up perpetuating a lifestyle that these people have become all too accustomed too. Now before you bash me on that statement remember I was homeless myselfi. I know what it is like to sleep in a wooded area or on top of a building. (police aren't nice to homeless people, you learn quickly where to hide in cities that have no camping laws)

What needs to be done is reintegration training into normal life. Programs that allow people that have become homeless that can offer a contribution to society a chance to prove themselves while at the same time learning a trade that perhaps in their former life they did not know. At the same time let them live somewhere where they have a sense of belonging and a sense of this is "my" place. This helps immensely with the loss of individuality that comes with homelessness. But at the same time make this place restricted in the fact that they also have to relearn normal social skills that fall to the wayside when a person becomes homeless.

So my solution goes in this order, it is the simple order of survival...

1. Give them a place to stay:, Homeless shelters provide this, but homeless people need to get started on a program to end the dependency on these places as fast as possible. The ones that can work need to be accountable for their place to stay.

2. Get them to work: This flows with step 1. Get these people something they can do to occupy their time, whether it is a real job or training for a new job, get them busy doing something that will contribute to society as a whole.

3. Encouragement and Counseling: remind these people that they do have something to contribute to society and that they can get out of this. This also would help the massive problem of those that cannot work due to a mental handicap. You have to identify these people and evaluate them on what they need and what they can do. If there is a drug or alcohol problem that is inhibiting them from working deal with this problem. A person is not going to drag themselves out of the gutter if they are so overwhelmed by their life that the only escape is through the use of drugs or alcohol. Regularly scheduled evaluations and drug testing would quantify this.

and finally...

4. Cut off the ones that refuse to help themselves: If a person is so complacent and so accustomed to the life of being homeless and refuses to do anything to help themselves get out of this situation. Cut them off, cut them off from free food, free clothing, free anything. If you can work and can make life better for yourself and refuse to do so, then you do not need to be here. This is harsh I know but I am not talking about the ones with an obvious mental disorder or the ones that physically cannot help themselves. This is a select few that just refuse to help themselves out of a bad situation and sponge off of others charity. Cut these people off and let them die.

As far as the ones that are out there that cannot help themselves through a mental or physical handicap. This one is more difficult. Treatment (I MEAN REAL FREAKING TREATMENT ) needs to be offered to these people. What all too often happens is these people get left dangling and are through their condition not properly treated. They get the worst of the worst medical and psychological treatment available. They are given drugs that do not work or are over medicated or under medicated. They are also given sub standard medical care because of their status. Real evaluations of these people need to be done and in some cases perpetual hospitalization may be the answer.

This all of course is just my opinion of what should be done to combat the issue, just my opinion, one man that has been there and has made it out.

[edit on 3/16/2008 by whatukno]

reply to post by csulli456



I hear you man. As I said earlier the this thread disturbed me.

The comments about the AMerican indians are messed up. American government officials, THE WHITEMAN broke every agreement they ever signed in with the natives american in the first place.

It didn't matter what it was. The whole annexing of mexico, california and the west coast is one big joke. Manifest destiny right. What is a house when you don't own the deed. Who invented a deed anyway, natives weren't claiming lands you know. It's not like they were holding it down like crips and bloods over this territory and this block. Totally foreign concepts started by profiteers and speculators.

Speculation is the reason we have this issue now. I don't want to go into how this all ties into Germany and the elitist lie, I figure a lot of you all alredy know that story, HOPEFULLY.

Otherwise, keep believing the lies until the end...

What contract matters when the other party does not hold up its end of the bargain, then knocks you off to not have any witnesses.

reply to post by space cadet


Good, I wish you success in life. Hard work pays off eventually.

Originally posted by Areal51
reply to post by chromatico

 

reply to post by dismanrc

 

Theoretically I can eventually acquire a car to give to the person that I sold one to before I had a car to actually sell.

A bank can lend out 10 times what it has on hand. If a bank has but $1 it can lend $10. Now, why that should this criminal practice be legal? It's beyond misrepresentation -- banks do not merely just say that they have money when they do not have it, they also sell loans that represent money that they do not have. Plain and simple - this is fraud.

Banks are allowed to create infinite debt when in fact there is not at least the equivalent amount of money printed or in circulation to repay every loan sold. Banks are allowed to create money out of nothing. That is fraud perpetrated on the people and society.

Banks selling loans to people is analogous to people signing up to inject themselves with a deadly disease in order to compete for a severely limited supply of vaccine. Even if the cards are extremely well played by each person many will die.


[edit on 16-3-2008 by Areal51]

Well said and this hits the nail squarely on the head. I agree that ignorance has a lot to do with the current situation BUT my real and intense hatred goes towards the chicken necked federal reserve vultures and the hoodwinkers that set it up. Yes boys and girls, this started back in 1913, this has been going on for quite some time. The good ol' US of A is ever so slowly getting sucked dry by the banker parasites and with money they print out of THIN AIR. How about that, this country is being bought out with monopoly money.


I've got news for you all and I suggest you listen up. America is heading to hell in a handbasket and for most it's going to catch them totally by surprise. The ONLY thing that will save us is a mass turn back towards God and then some rather bloody 'civil disobedience'.

I like to think of myself as not being the doomsayer type but deep in my gut I think it's too late but we'll see.

In the meantime.. WAKE UP sheep!

reply to post by ViewFromTheStars


The economy is so much worse than it was in 1913. Got it.

I think this is an important thread.

If you review the article again, this is actually setup by the local government to help these people out. The concern is more that this is quickly becoming permanent. Is this the tip of the iceberg?

- Have these people borrowed too much money? Yes probably
- Did they want to buy to live the life shown on TV and in the movies? Yes probably
- Should they have read the fine print on the loan? Yes probably
- Were they heavily sold the loan without have the consequences explained? Yes probably
- Did the salesperson and local bank make money from this? Yes
- Did it sell the debt on through the markets? Yes
- Does this debt need to be repaid? Yes
- Will this cause banks to default? Yes
- Should the Fed let the banks default? Yes
- But, did the Fed bail them out? Yes
- Will they get the money for the bail out by borrowing yet more money? Yes
- Will this debt need to be repaid? Yes (eventually)

Who will ultimately pay? The American people (and globally) in the form of taxes, changes in jobs, standard of living and social unrest.

This is a personal tragedy for those involved and the system is circular.
The bigger question is deciding the type of society we want to live in, its values and system.

It all links together and is important we make decisions looking at the bigger picture.
It is a bad situation that is really difficult to manage, there is no quick fix.

It is all quite worrying at the moment.

So yea im about to go insane. The price of EVERYTHING keeps going up. Gas, food, etc..... Even our mortgage went up when we had a fixed rate for 30 yrs.... They couldnt even explain properly why.....kept changing their story over and over...... I live with my sister and her husband... Thats 3 of us paying the mortgage. Everything was good last year.... but ever since the increase of consumer goods its been a struggle to keep up with the payments. I see empty houses all around my block........ guess what nobody is moving in anytime soon..... Why should us HARD working americans suffer??

The economy suffers because we are not able to afford anything besides what is needed. Than you have a chain reaction and everything starts to slowly crumple. My in law has his own business which is slowly getting worse. All because his customers just cant afford to go an pay for his services.

The situation gets worse by the day. A bag of rice that cost $8 last time is now at $16.

Call me when the revolution begins.

reply to post by akoviem


And you have found what made me homeless to begin with...

I fortunately did not have a mortgage to contend with along with everything else and paid rent. Renter's get evicted when they cannot pay rent.

It is a downward spiral that happened in the 1970's it's happening again.

Inflation, gas prices, mortgage payments, its all the same thing people were complaining about in the 1970's

While international spending keeps going up (The War in Iraq)) The money for internal affairs stagnates and suffers. Billions are spent in a war that 62% of the American people are against. The people of this country that could use that money to benefit themselves and the American economy is stagnant.

reply to post by whatukno


I concurr. One cannot just burn up the national credit card and never expect there to be any consequences...but that is just what is being done with the war in Iraq.

Originally posted by anxietydisorder
It serves them right.
If you take out a loan you can't possibly repay, or you fail to read the fine print, then you lose your home.

Sure, the financial institutions offered loans in a way that made them look very attractive while markets were rising, but they didn't forge your signature on the papers.

If you can't pay you're out.
Go live in a tent if you're that stupid or rent an apartment, because you deserve it.

First, I live in LA and it's on the news here. Second, and most importantly, This housing crisis is effecting all of us. We own two contracting business that are really in trouble. No one is building. No one is making improvements to their homes either. We also own a restaurant...guess what? That's being effected too! People aren't going out to eat. They are protecting what little they do have.

We have never in our lives hurt like we're hurting now. Our mortgage isn't our problem. In fact, it's the least of our worries right now.